Adann-Kennn Alexxandar

“Ballerina” 

(Action: 2 hours, 05 minutes) 

Starring: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Keanu Reeves and Ian McShane  

Director: Len Wiseman

Rated: R (Strong/bloody violence throughout, and strong language.)

Movie review: “Ballerina” is another movie from the world of John Wick. It has the same setup and a similar story. Therefore, it is nothing new. It is merely a popcorn flick, yet an enjoyable one.

This outing, Eve Macarro (Armas) is a young woman who trained in the traditions of the Ruska Roma organization. She sets out for revenge, searching for the people who killed her father 12 years ago when she was a girl. Idolizing John Wick (Reeves), she will not stop until she completes her task. Inadvertently, she is about to cause a war between two criminal syndicate factions, so the Director of Ruska Roma (Huston) sends John Wick to track down Macarro and execute her.

Armas performs fighting sequences with zeal. She is good in action scenes, but her non-emotional stoic personality is lacking. The acting is not convincing. Perhaps this is why producers included Keanu Reeves in this story. He remains an attractive assassin as John Wick.

It is nice to see Huston back again. She provides a captivating character. Houston remains one of the more attention-getting characters of the John Wick movies. “Ballerina,” helmed by Len Wiseman (“Underworld,” 2003), fails to make good use of talented actors such as Gabriel Byrne, who plays The Chancellor, a ruthless criminal overlord.

“Ballerina” is an all-action movie. Most things involve murder or violence of some form, and some are very graphic scenes. However, this movie is not meant to be a movie for acting. It is meant to be entertainment for action film aficionados. On that point, it achieves its goal.

Grade: B- (This ballerina is ‘en pointe’ for a John Wick spinoff.)

 

“Tornado”

(Period Drama/Thriller: 1 hour, 31 minutes) 

Starring: Kōki, Jack Lowden, Takehiro Hira and Tim Roth.  

Director: John Maclean

Rated: R (Violence and language)

Movie review:

Set in the wild-west landscape of a 1790s Britain, “Tornado” has the appeal of a

Quentin Tarantino movies, such as “Kill Bill: Volume 1,” except the gory violence is nominal here. “Tornado” is an elusive samurai story with a shaky execution by director-writer John Maclean (“Slow West,” 2015).

Tornado, played by model, songwriter Kōki (“Touch,” 2024) is a young and strong-willed Japanese woman. She and her father Fujin (Hira) are the sole performers in a travelling Samurai puppet show. The entertainers’ lives change when they cross paths with a criminal gang led by Sugarman (Roth) and his son Little Sugar (Lowden). Having received Samurai training from her father, Tornado plans to avenge her father’s death by hunting down Sugarman and his band of outlaws.

The characters are thinly developed. Audiences receive an hour of build-up and less than 30 minutes of a young woman avenging her father’s murder. The problem is Kōki’s appearance is not that of a warrior and is unconvincing.

Despite some intense moments that are well-acted and ably crafted, Tornado‘s revenge does not inspire or create a reason for one to care about her and her cause. Tornado prompted the very problem she tries to rectify. She is as bad as the criminals in this action thriller that borders on being a noir film.

The asynchronous storytelling is what sinks this Asian western-themed movie. Flashback scenes are haphazardly inserted when a straightforward story would suffice. Such scenes make a day seem like one hour. The problem here is time is monotone, as if the same hour occurs every 60 minutes.  

Grade: C (The main character does match her name.)

 

“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” 

(Romantic Drama: 1 hour, 38 minutes; French with English subtitles) 

Starring: Camille Rutherford, Pablo Pauly and Charlie Anson   

Director: Laura Piani

Rated: R (Strong language, sexual content and nudity.)

Movie review:

“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life” is a French romantic comedy. The humor is subtle, but the main character’s life delivers enough self-enlightenment that it holds one’s attention. This screenplay by director-writer Laura Piani is appropriately long enough to see a young writer move from fantasizing about lovers to finding one.  

Agathe Robinson (Rutherford) is a burgeoning writer who works at the bookshop Shakespeare and Co. in Paris. She wants to have a love affair similar to one in a Jane Austen novel, yet Agathe is awkward in relationships. She receives an invitation to Jane Austen Writers’ Residency in England. There, she must face writer’s block, her phobia of riding in cars and the duality she faces regarding two male suitors — a playfully doting best friend Félix (Pauly) and a more reserved Oliver (Anson), a literature professor and a great-great-great-great nephew of Jane Austen.

In Jane Austen’ “Sense and Sensibility,” she wrote, “It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” Agathe feels she does nothing of merit, comparing herself to Anne Elliot in Austen’s “Persuasion” — “an old maid who has let her life pass her by.”  Agathe is doing something. She writes, works at a famous bookstore and helps raise her sister’s son. The writer is going through a midlife crisis, searching for a love she cannot find.

When two lovers arrive, Agathe’s life becomes very similar to an Austen novel set in a modern era. Audiences get a few laughs, but some mild humor concerning an elderly man with dementia is a negative. The rest of this romantic comedy delivers mild amusing moments that are just entertaining enough to make the characters’ actions admirable.

“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.” The characters provide excellent examples of those words from Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility.” The actions of Agathe, Félix and Oliver become an experience in finding love.

Grade: B- (She does not wreck your life, but she does add some amusement.)